Light­ing of the altar can­dles in hon­or of the baby born in Beth­le­hem, Jesus, who is the Light of the World

CONGREGATIONALINTROIT No. 2095 (Vs. 1 & 5) Star-Child

CALLTOWORSHIP

One: Arise; shine, for your light has come.

All: Stand up; a new day is dawn­ing,

One: A new year is born,

All: Fresh and clean.

One: Arise; shine, for your light has come.

All: Emmanuel, God is with us

One: On every path we take,

All: No mat­ter where we go.

One: Arise; shine, for your light has come,

All: And the stars still shine

One: Where Christ is present

All: And voic­es sing in praise!

*HYMN No. 249 There’s A Song in the Air

AFFIRMATIONOFFAITH

Let us adore the Father, the God of love who cre­at­ed us; who every moment pre­serves us and sus­tains us; who has loved us with an ever­last­ing love, and giv­en us the light of the knowl­edge of his glo­ry in the face of Jesus Christ …

Who, being in the very nature God was made in human like­ness

Who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor

and took on the very nature of a ser­vant;

Who went about doing good and preach­ing the truth about God;

Who was tempt­ed in every way like we are, yet was with­out sin;

Who became obe­di­ent unto death, even the death on the cross;

Who was dead, but lives forever­more;

Who opened the King­dom of heav­en to all who would believe;

Who now sits at the right hand of God in the glo­ry of the Father.

Let us rejoice in the fel­low­ship of the Holy Spir­it, by whom we are born into the fam­i­ly of God, and made mem­bers of the Church, which is the Body of Christ;

Whose wit­ness con­firms our sal­va­tion;

Whose wis­dom teach­es us the Way, the Truth, and the Life;

Whose pow­er enables us to reject the spir­i­tu­al forces of evil and live

One: O God, you have set forth the way of life for us in your beloved Son; we con­fess with shame our slow­ness to learn of him and our reluc­tance to fol­low him.

All: For­give us those times when you have spo­ken and called to us and we have not respond­ed; when you have shown us beau­ty, and we have been blind; when you have stretched out your hands to us through our friend­ships, and we have passed by. We have tak­en great ben­e­fits and offered lit­tle thanks.

One: For­give us the pover­ty of our wor­ship, the for­mal­i­ty and self­ish­ness of our prayers, our incon­stan­cy and unbe­lief, our neglect of fel­low­ship and the means of grace, our hes­i­tat­ing wit­ness for Christ, our false pre­tens­es, and our will­ful igno­rance of your ways.

All: For­give our wast­ing of time or when we have mis­used our gifts; when we have excused our own wrong­do­ing or evad­ed our respon­si­bil­i­ties.

One: For­give us when we have been unwill­ing to over­come evil with good and have drawn back from bear­ing the cross in our rela­tions with oth­ers.

All: For­give us that so lit­tle of your love has reached oth­ers through us, and when we have so light­ly borne the wrongs or suf­fer­ing of oth­ers. We have cher­ished the things that divide us from oth­ers, and we have made it hard for oth­ers to live with us.

One: For­give us for the times when we have been thought­less in our judg­ments, hasty in con­dem­na­tion, and grudg­ing in offer­ing for­give­ness.

All: If we have ignored fel­low­ship with your peo­ple, or kept in our heart a griev­ance against anoth­er and have not sought rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. If we have been eager that those who have angered us get what we believe they deserve and slow to seek their redemp­tion, though we are not deserv­ing, have mer­cy upon us.

INVITATIONTORENEWINGOURCOVENANTWITHGOD

COVENANTPRAYER

I will no longer be my own, but yours. Lord, make of my life what you will; I put myself ful­ly into your hands: put me to doing, put me to suf­fer­ing, let me be employed for you, or laid aside for you, let me be full, let me be emp­ty, let me have all things, let me have noth­ing. I freely and with a will­ing heart give it all to your plea­sure and dis­pos­al. And now, O glo­ri­ous and blessed God — Father, Son and Holy Spir­it, you are mine and I am yours. So be it! And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be rat­i­fied in heav­en. Amen!

THEBLESSINGOFTHEWATEROFBAPTISM

RENEWALOFOURBAPTISM

You are invit­ed to come for­ward through the cen­ter aisle to touch the water in the basin. You can make the sign of the cross upon your fore­head, remem­ber and renew your com­mit­ment to fol­low Christ. Place your “Covenant” card in the bas­ket and return to your seat by the side aisle.

PRAYEROFBLESSING

*CLOSINGHYMN No. 251 Go, Tell It on the Moun­tain

THESENDINGGo Now In Peace

POSTLUDESor­tie en fa majeur (L’Or­gan­iste) — César Franck

*Please stand as you are able

Join us in Fel­low­ship Hall for fel­low­ship and refresh­ments fol­low­ing wor­ship.